TO ALL CARNAL, UNCONVERTED, CHRISTLESS SINNERS!

TO ALL CARNAL, UNCONVERTED, CHRISTLESS SINNERS!

 

MISERABLE SOULS!

With the eye of a sure, though too feeble faith, we see the heaven which you neglect, and the blessed souls in glory with Christ, whose companions you might be forever!  We see the multitude of souls in hell who came thither by the same way that you are going in, who are shut out of the glorious presence of God, and are now among the devils that deceived them. With our bodily eyes we see abundance of poor sinners living about us as if there were no God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell, no death, no judgment, no eternity! O what a deceiver is the devil, that can thus lead on souls to their own damnation! O what a cheater is this transitory world, that can make men so forget the world where they must live forever! O what an enemy is this flesh, that thus draweth men's souls from God! O what a besotting thing is sin, that turneth a reasonable soul into worse than a beast! O what a world is this, where men are laboring to undo themselves, and gratifying the devil against that God and Savior who would give them everlasting blessed life! Poor sinners! will you still be cheated by this deceiving world? Were you made for no better, no higher work than this? What! not one awakened look into the world where you must be forever? Not one heart-raising thought of everlasting glory? Not one heart-piercing thought of all your Savior's love? Not one tear for all your sinful lives? O God forbid! Let not our labors be so despised! Let not your God, your Savior, and your souls be set so light by.

Alas! what heart can now possibly conceive, or what tongue express the pains of those souls that are under the wrath of God! Then, sinners, you will be crying to Jesus Christ, "O mercy! O pity, pity, on a poor soul! Why, I do now, in the name of the Lord Jesus, cry to thee, "O have mercy, have pity, man, upon thy own soul!" Shall God pity thee, who wilt not be entreated to pity thyself? If thy horse see but a pit before him, thou canst scarcely force him in; and wilt thou so obstinately cast thyself into hell, when the danger is foretold thee? "Who can stand before the indignation of the Lord? and who can abide the fierceness of his anger?" (Nahum 1: 6.) Methinks thou shouldst need no more words, but presently cast away thy soul-damning sins, and wholly deliver up thyself to Christ. May the Lord persuade thy heart to strike this covenant without any longer delay! But if thou be hardened unto death, and there be no remedy, yet say not another day but that thou wast faithfully warned, and hadst a friend, that would fain have prevented thy damnation.

Poor souls, consider, --God is in earnest with you; and why should not you be so with him? In his commands, his threatenings, his promises, he means as he speaks. In his judgments he is serious. Was he not so when he drowned the world? When he consumed Sodom and Gomorrah? And when be scattered the Jews? Is it time, then, to trifle with God? --Jesus Christ was serious in purchasing our redemption. In teaching, he neglected his meat and drink. In prayer, be continued all night. In doing good, his friends thought him beside himself. In suffering, he fasted forty days, was tempted, betrayed, spit upon, buffeted, crowned with thorns, sweat drops of blood, was crucified, pierced, died: there was no jesting in all this. And should not we be serious in seeking our own salvation?  --The Holy Spirit is serious in soliciting us to be happy. His motions are frequent, pressing, and importunate. He striveth with us. He is grieved when we resist him. And should not we be serious, then, in obeying and yielding to his motions? --God is serious in hearing our prayers, and bestowing mercies.  He is afflicted with us. He regardeth every groan and sigh, and puts every tear into his bottle.  The next time thou art in trouble, thou wilt beg for a serious regard to thy prayers.  And shall we expect real mercies, when we are slight and superficial in the work of God? --the ministers of Christ are serious in exhorting and instructing you. They beg of God, and of you; and long more for the salvation of your souls than for any worldly good. If they kill themselves with their labor, or suffer martyrdom for preaching the gospel, they think their lives are well bestowed, so that they prevail for the saving your souls. And shall other men be so painful and careful for your salvation, and you be so careless and negligent of your own? --How diligent and serious are all the creatures in serving you! What haste makes the sun to compass the world! The fountains are always flowing for thy use; the rivers still running; spring and harvest keep their times. How hard does thy ox labor for thee from day to day! How speedily does thy horse travel with thee! And shalt thou only be negligent? Shall all these he so serious in serving thee, and thou so careless in thy service to God? --The servants of the world and the devil are serious and diligent. They work as if they could never do enough. They make baste, as if afraid of coming to hell too late. They bear down ministers, sermons, and all before them. And shall they be more diligent for damnation than thou for salvation?  Hast thou not a better Master, sweeter employment, greater encouragements, and a better reward? --Time was when thou wast serious thyself in serving Satan and the flesh, if it be not so yet. How eagerly didst thou follow thy sports, thy evil company, and sinful delights! And wilt thou not now be as earnest and violent for God? --You are to this day in earnest about the things of this life. If you are sick or in pain, what serious complaints do you utter! If you are poor, how hard do you labor for a livelihood! And is not the business of your salvation of far greater moment?  --There is no jesting in heaven or hell. The saints have a real happiness, and the damned a real misery. There are no remiss or sleepy praises in heaven, nor such lamentations in hell. All there are in earnest. When thou, reader, shalt come to death and judgment, oh! what deep, heart-piercing thoughts wilt thou have of eternity! Methinks I foresee thee already astonished, to think how thou couldst possibly make so light of these things. Methinks I even hear thee crying out of thy stupidity and madness.

Poor sinners!  We are in good earnest with you! Can any man he in jest with you who believeth God? Our object is the saving of your poor souls. What else do we study for, labor for, suffer for, live for? Come, then, and help us, who are seeking to help you! Give over striving against God and conscience. Give over fighting against Christ and his Spirit. Take part no more with the world and the flesh, which, in your baptism, you renounced. We offer you nothing but what we have chosen for ourselves. O increase not your guilt, your pain, by refusing these calls. O turn not our complaints to God against you. Turn us not from beseeching you to be reconciled to God, to tell him that you would not be reconciled. Force us not to say that we invited you to the heavenly feast, but you would not come. Poor sinners! your case is not yet desperate. O make it not desperate! Heaven may yet he yours if you will. O will you not be saved? Will you prefer the world and the flesh before your Savior and your God, before a sure and everlasting joy? O retire for a little into thyself, and use the reason of a man. Look before thee whither thou art going, and look behind thee how thou hast lived; look within thee and see what state thy soul is in, whether it be ready to enter on eternity; look above thee, what a heaven of glory thou dost neglect, and what a God thou hast to be thine everlasting friend or enemy; look beneath thee, and think where they are that have died unconverted. When thou hast soberly thought of these things, then do as God and thy conscience shall direct thee. And is this an unreasonable request. 

If now, poor soul, thou art fully convinced, and askest, what should I do to be saved?  The Lord make thee willing, and I will quickly tell thee in a few words.

 

1. Come to Christ, and take him for thy Savior, thy teacher, thy king, and he will pardon and save thee. -John i. 12. 1 John v. 11. 12.

2. Believe God's love, and the pardon of sin and the everlasting joys of heaven, that thou mayest feel all else to be vanity in comparison with these.

 

Pity, O Lord, and persuade these souls! Let not Christ's blood, his doctrine, his example, his Spirit, be lost unto them, and they lost forever! Let not heaven be as no heaven to them, while they dream and dote on the shadows of this world. O save this land from the greater destruction, than all plagues, and famines, and divisions, and wars, which our sins and thy threatenings make us fear. O Lord in thee have we trusted, let us never be confounded!

 

[Abridged from Baxter]

 

Richard Baxter (12 November 1615 - 8 December 1691) was an English Nonconformist church leader and theologian from Rowton, Shropshire, who has been described as "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen".